SEO NEWS: Link BandAids Post Penguin

SEOs have been trying to find a way to around some of the Penguin penalties involved with link building practices that were the norm and accepted as fair practice by Google only a few short months ago. Webmasters that purchased bulk link packages in which they suddenly grew by hundreds or even thousands of links overnight, often repeating the process each month, have had to deal with the fact the Google is no longer viewing that favorably. In fact, Google has laid down such stiff penalties that in some cases webmasters have decided it was cheaper and easier to abandon their site and start fresh with a new one.

The process of removing links has not proved terrible fast or easy to this point. Many webmasters hosting what are now considered “bad links” are not responding to take down requests at all. Some are asking for monetary compensation in exchange. For their part, Google has been less than understanding or compassionate to webmasters in regard to their inability to get third parties to comply to take down requests.

What it has all led to is Google being seen as overly harsh and wielding a bully stick just because they can, and bad webmasters looking to make a quick buck on the back of the change by extorting money for link removal making all webmasters look bad. Add in the mix that Google says little of use and does even less of use. And you have an update that while well intended is a bigger mess than it will be worth in the long term.